There's little debate in the Church that some sort of health care reform is necessary. Catholic social teaching, from papal encyclicals to U.S. bishops' conference pronouncements, increasingly in recent decades has described health care as a "right," and the U.S. bishops' conference has pressured Congress to take action on improving health care access.
The most notable Catholic opposition, starting with the bishops' conference, to current draft reform bills has been over the bills' failure to exclude federal funding for abortion.
Ping for later.
Show me just one Catholic bishop who will speak up against coveting your neighbors’ goods. That is why Catholics ignored the Bishops on abortion. They know abortion is wrong but overlooked the Dems on that point because those same politicians pandered to their covetousness. Same for protestants and evangelical pastors, leaders and activists. American politics and government at all levels is driven by government-mediated coveting. Until the Church takes a stand against this we can expect to sink deeper and deeper into socialism and, oh yeah, abortion.FReeper all the best, November 5, 2008.
A hundred years ago the nuns at St. Mary’s hospital in Duluth went out and sold health insurance to miners and loggers for a dollar a year. That was a fresh and innovative idea at the time. They actually did something and helped solve problems. Who know what other wonderful ideas would have emerged if government-sclerosis hadn’t set in and stifled ALL innovation.
Nice article. Pity more of the bishops aren’t in line with authentic social doctrine...including subsidiarity.